


Cootie Shot

by write_away



Series: We May Look Easy Pickings [4]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Kindergarten & Pre-school, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Kid Fic, the search is on!, they're pretty cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2013-08-05
Packaged: 2017-12-22 11:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/write_away/pseuds/write_away
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> “When was the last time any of you saw Joly?”</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Combeferre raises his hand, frowning. His glasses are askew because he ran to the tree and hasn’t fixed them yet. Enjolras catches Courfeyrac trying to reach over to straighten to frames, but Combeferre keeps swatting him away. “I saw him during lunchtime.”</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“Yeah,” Bossuet agrees, bobbing his head. “I slipped on milk and got hurt and he fixed it.” He points to a bandaid on his elbow that doesn’t actually cover the cut at all. He pouts, rubbing the injury. “But I dunno where he went.” </i>
</p>
<p>Joly's gone missing during recess and Enjolras is determined to find him. No friend gets lost or left behind!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cootie Shot

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here it is - another installment of We May Look Easy Pickings! And, even better, we get to see almost all of the Amis this time. Let me tell you, keeping track of them all is a nightmare. I did headcounts every other paragraph to try and make sure everyone was accounted for in some way. As usual, it's not necessary to read the previous installments, but those are pretty cute too. Enjoy!

Enjolras can’t find Joly.

Usually, he wouldn’t be too worried. After all, Joly is always missing for one reason or another – in the nurse’s office or sitting with Miss Fantine or playing with Bossuet and the other second graders – but Joly had _promised_ to play with him during recess. They were going to do races, because it isn’t fair when they race anyone else. Everyone else has longer legs, so they _always_ win.

But Joly is nowhere to be found. 

It doesn’t take long to rally up the search party.  

Enjolras may be tiny, but he sure knows how to get a crowd. “Okay, everyone! Can you all hear me?” he shouts. He’s sitting on the lowest branch of his favorite tree, staring down at his friends with as much maturity as he can muster. They look up at him with wide, bright eyes.

They all nod in confirmation, a few murmuring quiet agreements.

“Good!” Holding on tight to the trunk, Enjolras manages to stand on the branch. He can’t reach the next one yet, but he tries. “When was the last time any of you saw Joly?” 

Combeferre raises his hand, frowning. His glasses are askew because he ran to the tree and hasn’t fixed them yet. Enjolras catches Courfeyrac trying to reach over to straighten to frames, but Combeferre keeps swatting him away. “I saw him during lunchtime.” 

“Yeah,” Bossuet agrees, bobbing his head. “I slipped on milk and got hurt and he fixed it.” He points to a bandaid on his elbow that doesn’t actually cover the cut at all. He pouts, rubbing the injury. “But I dunno where he went.”

Grantaire raises his hand, almost bouncing. “Me and Eponine and Cosette saw him when we did cartwheels on the grass! Right?”

“Yeah!” Cosette chimes in. She’s been gazing at the tree curiously, as if she’s trying to figure out the best possible way to climb up. Enjolras scowls at her – this is _his_ spot.

Eponine pulls her back by the wrist. She must have noticed Enjolras’s face. “He was playing with Chetta, I think.” She shrugs. “They’re probably playing hide and seek.”

“But Miss Fantine made Chetta go inside with Jean,” Bahorel points out. “I saw it. They all went inside. Joly wasn’t there though.”

Enjolras frowns. He hadn’t noticed Jean’s absence before. “Why did Jean go inside?” he demands to know. His dad used to say that losing one friend is unlucky, but missing two is careless, and he is _not_ careless.

Bahorel shrugs. “I dunno. Jean had a book with him. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to have it? He told me it was about grown up stuff, like what moms and dads do.”

Enjolras makes a mental note to find out what book Jean had, because if he wasn’t supposed to have it, it must’ve been good. “Okay,” he says and scans the playground. “We gotta split up." 

There’s a murmur of dissent throughout the group. They usually don’t all play together during recess, but they like to stay close, because the fourth and fifth graders can be scary. They like to tease a lot, and Enjolras and Bahorel aren’t allowed to get in any more fights or they can’t play at recess anymore, so they all just try to stick together. Nobody likes to split up.

“No buts!” Enjolras shouts, feeling a little bit like Feuilly. “I don’t wanna split up either, but we gotta do it! It’s not fair that Joly has to be all alone and we get to be together! We gotta find him, guys!” 

This garners a little more positivity from the crowd. Combeferre and Courfeyrac nod, and that’s that.

Only Grantaire looks unsure still. “If I get beat up by big kids,” he says warningly, “I’m gonna kick you really hard and I don’t care if Mr. Valjean makes me eat lunch with him for a _month_.”

Enjolras doesn’t think Grantaire is as good at karate as he says, but it’s probably better not to risk it. “Fine,” he says and crosses his arms. For a split second, he loses his balance, but he catches himself easily. “You’ll come with me and Combeferre. We’ll look at the fields.” 

“We’re not supposed to go to the fields,” Combeferre mutters, but Enjolras ignores him. Nobody ever found a lost friend by following the rules.

“Eponine, Bahorel, and Courfeyrac, I want you to check the playground and the swingset,” Enjolras orders. “I know the big kids are over there, so be careful. And Bossuet and Cosette, I want you to get inside and look for them there. It can’t be too hard, cuz Miss Fantine’s your mom, Cosette, and Bossuet, just pretend you fell and they’ll take you to the nurse.” It sounds like a good plan – it happens once every day anyway. “If you can find Jean, make sure he’s ok and then get him to help.”

Everyone nods, even Grantaire, so Enjolras shimmies down the tree. “Okay,” he says as he turns to face his friends. “Break!”

They scatter immediately.

It’s almost the end of recess by the time they find Joly hiding underneath the picnic tables in the field. Enjolras resists the urge to stick his tongue out at Combeferre, who just frowns and keeps looking over at the teachers to make sure they don’t get in trouble.

“I’ll get the others!” he decides and runs back to the playground. Enjolras wrinkles his nose – he was going to send Grantaire back to find everyone. Now he’s stuck with him. _Great_.

“Joly!” he cries, deciding to ignore Grantaire for now. Enjolras drops to his knees and crawls underneath the table. He fits perfectly, with the table high above his head, but it’s more difficult for Grantaire to join them. “Why are you hiding?”

“Are you okay?” Grantaire asks, frowning seriously. Enjolras feels a spark of anger. Isn’t he happy that they found him?

“Yup,” Joly says and bobs his head, but his cheeks are flushed bright red and his eyes are downcast.

“What’re you hiding from?” Enjolras asks. He brushes some grass out of Joly’s hair, because he knows Joly hates dirt. “Did Montparnasse say something mean?” 

Joly shakes his head rapidly. “No,” he whispers. “ _Worse_.” 

“Worse?” Grantaire echoes curiously and leans in. “What’s worse?”

Joly shudders and buries his face in his hands. “No, don’t come closer!”

"Why?" Enjolras asks, intentionally disobeying. He’s not scared. “What’s wrong?”

Joly peeks at him with a pale face. “I have _cooties,_ ” he whispers, terrified. “Chetta gave them to me. I don’t wanna have cooties.” 

Enjolras's eyes go wide like saucers, but Grantaire only laughs. “My sister said that cooties aren’t _real_.”

“Yes, they are!” Enjolras and Joly both shout at him.

Enjolras tilts his body to shield Joly from Grantaire. “Go away, Joly is already sick! We don’t need you here being mean.”

Grantaire’s bottom lip quivers just slightly. “Fine,” he says, pouting and blinking rapidly. “I’ll go play with… with…” He falters and looks at the ground. “Can I please stay? I’ll be quiet. I just wanna know if Joly is okay.” 

Enjolras glances at Joly, who nods meekly. “Okay,” Enjolras agrees, sighing. “I _guess_ you can stay.” He frowns at Joly and inches as close as he can without touching. “I thought you got your cootie shot from ‘Ferre.”

Joly nods and wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand. “I got it last week, though, and now it’s gone!”

Grantaire shifts around a bit until he pulls a crushed, crumpled package of tissues out from his back pocket. He offers it to Joly shyly. “Spit on one,” he suggests. “And rub it on the place where she gave you… cooties.” He wrinkles his nose at the word. “It’ll make them go away.”

Joly sticks out his tongue in discontent but spits on the tissue anyway, then starts scrubbing at his cheek. “She _kissed_ me,” he tells Enjolras, his entire face turning pink. “I only asked her if she wanted to be my girlfriend! I didn’t think she’d give me _cooties_. Miss Fantine made her go inside cuz of it.” 

Grantaire laughs again, giggles erupting from him seemingly against his will. “That means she likes you _back_ , stupid,” he says. 

Joly blinks. “Oh. So do I have a girlfriend?”

“I dunno.” Grantaire shrugs and leans against the bench. “Ask her again." 

“With the cootie shot, though,” Enjolras adds gravely. “Is it gone?”

Joly peers at the tissue critically, pressing it almost to his nose so he can see it more closely. “I think so…”

"Okay. Give me your arm.” Enjolras holds out his hand expectantly for Joly to deposit his arm. He knows Joly likes Chetta the way that Feuilly likes the girl he’s dating, but _Feuilly_ can get his cootie shot from that box he hides under his bed. Enjolras found it last week, but Feuilly told him to get a cootie shot from a friend instead, so he made Combeferre do it. Anyway, since Joly doesn’t have a box of cootie shots, he’s got to give it. “Circle circle, dot dot, now you have the cootie shot. Circle circle, square square, now you have it everywhere!” he chants, tracing the shapes into Joly’s arm. He grins widely. “You’re all better.”

“Now you can ask Chetta to be your girlfriend for real,” Grantaire adds eagerly. The bell rings from the playground, signaling the end of recess. It sounds so far away, almost unreal. Enjolras sighs and starts to back out from under the table.

Joly turns from pink to red. “I’m gonna make a ring during arts and crafts,” he decides and crawls out after Enjolras. They help each other to their feet and brush off all the dirt from their pants. “Are you coming, Grantaire?”

Grantaire frowns and scowls at the ground. “I _guess_ ,” he mumbles and crawls out. “I don’t wanna go back. We’re doing math. I hate adding.”

“I’ll help you,” Joly promises. Enjolras stays silent – he would offer to help if Grantaire didn’t flick eraser pieces at him every time he tries.

Grantaire smiles at Joly. “Thanks.”

“Let’s go back,” Enjolras says loudly, only a little jealous of them. If Joly starts to play with Grantaire during recess, he’ll _never_ have anyone to race with.

“Yeah,” Grantaire says with a sigh. He doesn’t bother to clean himself off, only starts to shuffle back toward Miss Fantine and the class.

Joly and Enjolras follow close after, linking fingers tightly. “I’m glad we found you,” Enjolras says softly as they stroll over the grass to the asphalt. He tightens his grip on Joly just slightly. “Did you get scared that we wouldn’t?”

Joly bites his bottom lip and shakes his head. “Nah,” he says. He smiles at Enjolras widely, showing off the gap in his bottom teeth and the grown up tooth that’s in the middle of coming in. “I knew you would.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1) Yes, that was a box of condoms under Feuilly's bed. What can I say? He's a "big kid," in Enjolras's words.  
> 2) We'll revisit Jean and that book another day...
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this drabble! I honestly have so much fun writing the baby Amis. Thanks for reading!


End file.
